Historical Traveler Reviews St John's Lodge Windermere

Lovely hotel and staff

from Abigailthetenth

Absolutely great! A very special place. All the staff I met were friendly and pleasant and the Proprietor was particularly nice and helpful with me. The room was lovely, as clean and pleasant as anywhere I've stayed and I have travelled quite a lot. I particularly appreciated the strict no smoking as it meant the room was clean and fresh.

The best thing is the breakfasts, they are just wonderful. Adventurous, cater for special tastes and massive - you don't need to eat for the rest of the day.

St John's Lodge was one of the first guest houses in the area to become 'smoke free'. That was over ten years ago when we first took over the business. It was definitely the best decision we ever made.

Caution - Do Not stay here!

from elitechick

After trying to book the beautiful Waterhead Hotel, and searching for weeks on the internet for somewhere decent to stay in Windermere, we gave up, and decided to go book this place, as we were short of time.

Upon entering the B&B in the pouring rain, we expected at least a smile and nice welcome, instead, we were greeted with no smile and a rather frosty reception.

During signing the booking in form and a no smoking disclaimer, my partner was asked if he had a problem with the no smoking rules in the hotel, which of course he didn't , as he wouldn't have been staying there otherwise, and abides by peoples rules.

After being shown to our room, he was followed by one of the owners, and asked AGAIN if he had a problem with this, as to which he AGAIN answered no. We both thought that you were very rude in doing this and was an unpleasant start to our anniversary weekend away.

After looking around the very drab double room (which was sold as a family room! Hint - family rooms usually require more than one bed) We opened up what we thought was going to be a cupboard, turning out to actually be the en-suite bathroom! There was no bath towels, just a few small towels around the same size, and the shower couldn't have been a power shower, surely not?!

We were both, to say the least, disapointed. But as payment had already been taken, we decided to grin and bare it.

This place has a 12.30 curfew, not the sort of thing you want when you are on holiday!

I found this weekend to be most unpleasant, with the staff rude and snooty. One thing that made made me laugh after reading there website they put on - "Hospitality and friendliness were found to be to a very good standard in all areas".

English Tourism Council -

The English Tourism Council obviously haven't visited this place yet!

Hint - 'Exclusively for non- smokers' means we do not cater for people who smoke. We do not allow smoking anywhere on our premises including the areas outside. This is stated very clearly on all our web sites.

Hint - 'Enjoy an undisturbed night (we request no access to the building after 12.30 at night) means there is no access to the building after 12.30 at night. Again this is stated very clearly on our web sites.

Many of our customers return year after year because they can enjoy a decent night without disturbance.

St John's Lodge is inspected annually by both the AA and The English Tourist Board. Inspectors spend the night 'undercover' so that we are not aware who they are. The AA have awarded us three red AA diamonds for excellence which puts St John's in the top 10% of the three diamond category in the whole of the UK.

By the way The Waterhead Hotel is a lovely hotel. We should point out however that the above customers paid £65.00 per night at St John's Lodge. Had they been able to afford The Waterhead, (which by the way did have vacancies for the weekend), it would have set them back £189 per night. Hardly a like for like comparison!

Cheap and cheerful

from Alirup123

Cheap and cheerful! Great value for money.

We have stayed twice this year.

We are used to staying in very up market accomodation but for our breaks in Windermere our aim was lots of walking,eating out and sight seeing ,so our motivation for choosing St Johns was we just wanted a comfy bed and a good hearty breakfast ! And this is what we got.

Good choice of breakfasts (the guy who stated on a previous review that there were not enough beans made me howl He must have been a BIG lad l! If you see the size of the breakfasts you will no what I mean...we never needed lunch on all the days we stayed!).All beverages 'Fair Trade' which was great

In summary-good value,clean,comforatable,friendly and great position for local spots!

Great for veggies!

from Welbeck

The location of this hotel is great, within walking distance of Windermere village. The staff were pleasent, the rooms were basic but clean and good value. The breakfasts were excellent, catering extensively for vegetarians and vegans, definitely the most appealing feature of the b&b. I tried something different on every morning! Overall, the bed and breakfast was of average standard but not expensive and with an excellent specialist menu. Would recommend to veggies looking for a reasonable and pleasent weekend away.

Too Many Rules

from anonymous

The best feature about this B&B is the location as it is on the main road between Bowness & Windmere. As soon as we arrived we were greeted not in the usual personal manner you expect from a B&B, "how was your drive", etc, but a full run down of all the rules. Don't park here, no entering after this time, no using the shower after this time. It wasn't welcoming, it wasn't nice, and made us feel like we were back at school.

Breakfast was only served during a 45minute slot. 8:30-9:15. So there is no chance of a sleep in, even if you are on holiday. The actual food is nice but they had very very small portions. 1 and 1/2f sausages, 1 piece of toast, 1 tablespoon (no joke) of baked beans etc...

The rooms themselves were of very standard quality, they had a TV and were clean however the walls are so thin you can hear all your neighbours. The bathroom had terrible water pressure and it was nearly impossible to get the right temperature for a shower.

All I could do was look wistfully at all the other B&B's that we could have stayed which looked better furnished, and wouldn't have all the rules. I couldn't wait to leave.

TripAdvisor Reviews St John's Lodge Windermere

Outstanding

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